Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie penned and directed the upcoming Jack Reacher, an adaptation of Lee Childs’ bestseller One Shot that casts Tom Cruise as the title character. It is believed that Reacher could be the first in a series of films structured around the no-nonsense action hero, and Paramount’s so happy with the work McQuarrie did that they are dangling yet another potential franchise in front of his eyes.

According to Deadline, Paramount has hired McQuarrie to adapt Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse as a potential feature film. The studio’s also contemplating McQuarrie as the film’s director. Remorse almost made its way to the big screen multiple times, though the story – a spinoff from Clancy’s Jack Ryan series – has bets been described as bleak, violent and difficult to translate into a working screenplay.

At the same time, the Deadline story talks about the planned Jack Ryan reboot with Chris Pine in the lead, and the potential to possibly connect the two movies into a sprawling series of films (Avengers style) if McQuarrie’s able to crack the narrative code.

If anyone’s capable of doing it, it’s McQuarrie. Even if he never worked another day in his life, he’d forever be remembered as the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects. That’s a pretty awesome accomplishment to post on your tombstone. But McQuarrie has stayed consistently busy, contributing screenplays to The Way of the Gun (which he directed), Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie and The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.

This new partnership with Paramount is excellent news for two literary fan bases. Clancy fans can get excited that for the first time since Harrison Ford, there’s significant movement toward expanding that character’s international environment on screen. And for Reacher fans, the deal is a vote on confidence in McQuarrie and Cruise’s work, which we’ll finally get to see when Jack Reacher opens on Dec. 21.